A 5000 MW Mega Solar Park in Chitradurga with Farmers’ Participation?

An ambitious scheme is being laid out where more than a dozen villages in the Chitradurga district with join together to create a massive solar park (over a period of time, I presume).

“The project envisaged by a private agency, Renewable Energy Development Trust(RED-T), with participation of farmers as partners needs 40,000 acres spread over 16 villages, which include Siddavanahalli, Sondekere, Chikkamadure, Hirimadure, Mallappanahalli and Sanikere.”

It is interesting to note that these regions are drought prone, so solar as an alternative means of income does make preliminary sense. (Something similar is happening in far-off California)

What probably does not sound that much feasible are plans to have farmers plant stuff under the solar panels. While the future might script a different story on this, currently co-cultivation in solar farms is happening only selectively worldwide, though a director of Intersolar told me during the event that he has seen some good progress in this regard in China – so perhaps the folks driving this in Karnataka might want to hitch up with the Chinese on this.